- 24 Dec 2003 00:54
#64841
Belgium Destroyed by Rogue Asteroid!
The obscure nation of Belgium, often called "Europe's forgotten country," was virtually destroyed by the impact of an asteroid -- but incredibly, outsiders didn't notice for three weeks.
And even after they found out, newspapers and TV stations in the United States didn't bother to report it!
A concerned media critic is calling this the "most underreported story of 2003."
"I conducted an Internet search and I found only two references in the American media to the catastrophe in Belgium. Yet for the same time period I found more than 6,500 stories about Kobe Bryant," blasts media critic John Blancing of New York.
"We have to start getting our priorities straight as journalists. Belgium is a country of more than 10 million people, with a very rich history. To let its destruction go unreported is appalling and unforgivable."
The oversight has been blamed on a number of factors, among them the fact that the asteroid struck on September 12, when media attention was largely focused on the deaths of singer Johnny Cash and actor John Ritter.
There's also the sad reality that no one, either in the United States or the rest of Europe, is particularly interested in what happens in Belgium.
"Belgium hasn't made a major contribution to world history since the days of Flemish artists like Pieter Rubens in the 17th century," notes an expert.
"No American vacations there -- why would you, when there's London, Paris and Rome? To most outsiders, it's as if Belgium doesn't exist. And of course now it doesn't."
When astronomers first spotted the tiny, 460-square-foot "mini-asteroid," dubbed Appler 3710, late last year, it generated quite a stir, but interest died down after experts determined it would probably not hit Earth.
That turned out to be a big miscalculation, however.
"No one was keeping an eye on Appler 3710. Against all expectations, it landed in the heart of Europe," Blancing says.
The careening space rock spawned earthquakes across Belgium, which is about they size of Maryland, damaging concrete dikes and creating massive flooding in coastal areas. The death toll is believed to be at least 8,000, with millions more left homeless and hundreds of historical sites destroyed.
Extensive damage occurred in nine of the 10 provinces, with Antwerpen, Brabant and Wallon especially hard hit.
Fiercely proud, King Albert II has refused to allow Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt to reach out to fellow European nations for aid. And appealing to America for help was "out of the question," given Belgium's stubborn refusal to back Operation Iraqi Freedom earlier this year, Blancing notes.
In neighboring Luxembourg, which experienced minor quake damage, reports of the disaster in Belgium first began to surface in early October. But newspapers in France and Germany, which also border the tiny country, ignored rumors of a catastrophe.
"To put it bluntly, the Germans and French are concerned only with themselves," Blancing says.
It was only when the media critic happened to interview the Belgian ambassador to the U.N. that he himself learned what had happened.
"The ambassador didn't know about the asteroid until he phoned relatives back home," Blancing notes.
A trickle of reports on the deepimpact tragedy are finally beginning to crop up in the U.S., but it's too little, too late.
"CNN and FOX News should have been on top of this," the expert says, "but apparently Britney Spears' bare midriff or Eminem's latest antics are more important."
Source: http://www.weeklyworldnews.com/news/ind ... ceid=60195
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